Best Practices for Maintaining a Shared Catalog Database (IT Admin Guide)

1. Maintain Control Over Catalog Versions and Installation Dates

Catalogs evolve over time and may include changes such as:

• Price updates
• New or removed door styles
• Product availability changes
• Discontinued or out-of-stock items

✅ Recommendation

Maintain a catalog change log that includes:

• Catalog name
• Version or release identifier
• Installation date
• Installed by (administrator or process)
• Notes on major changes (pricing, styles, discontinued items)

This documentation allows IT and business teams to:

• Identify when an issue was introduced
• Correlate catalog changes with user-reported problems
• Decide whether a rollback is required

📌 Tip: Store this log in a shared IT documentation repository or change management system.

2. Always Back Up the COMMON Database Before Installing New Catalogs

Installing new or updated catalogs modifies the COMMON database directly. If a catalog introduces incorrect data, reverting changes without a backup can be time-consuming or impossible.

✅ Best Practice (Critical)

Create a full backup of the COMMON database before installing any new catalog set.

Why this matters:

A pre-installation backup allows IT to:

• Quickly restore a known-good state
• Roll back changes caused by:
  • Incorrect pricing
  • Invalid door styles
  • Missing or discontinued products
  • Catalog installation errors or corruption

Recommended Backup Approach

• If possible, stop all Design sessions accessing the shared database or do it once all the stores have close and no longer using the application.
• Copy the entire Common folder from the server
• Store the backup in a secure location with:
  • Date
  • Catalog version reference
  • Reason for backup (e.g., “Before 2026 Q1 catalog update new cabinet line Summer promotion”)

📌 Tip: Keep multiple historical backups, not just the most recent one.

3. Monitor Database Growth and Plan Capacity in Advance

The COMMON database grows over time as more catalogs are installed. 

Large catalog sets can significantly increase:

• Disk usage
• Memory consumption
• Load and startup times

✅ Capacity Planning Guidelines

Ensure the server hosting the shared catalog database has:

• Sufficient disk space
  • Allow room for:
    • Current catalogs
    • Future catalog growth
    • Multiple backups
• Adequate RAM
  • Prevent slow database access and long Design startup times
• Reliable storage performance
  • Prefer SSD storage for catalog databases

📌 Warning: Insufficient resources can lead to degraded performance, slow catalog loading, or instability when multiple users access Design simultaneously.

4. Schedule Catalog Maintenance During Low-Usage Windows

Catalog installations and database operations can temporarily impact availability and performance.

✅ Recommendation

• Perform catalog updates:
  • Outside of business hours
  • During scheduled maintenance windows
• Notify users in advance
• Ensure all Design sessions are closed before making changes

This reduces the risk of:

• File locking issues
• Partial installations
• User disruption

5. Ensure Reliable Server and Network Infrastructure

A shared catalog database depends heavily on server and network stability.

✅ Infrastructure Best Practices

• Use a reliable, always-on server
• Avoid hosting the database on:
  • Workstations
  • Laptops
  • Unstable network shares
• Ensure:
  • Stable network connectivity
  • Consistent drive mapping across all client machines
  • Proper access permissions to the catalog directory

6. Periodically Review and Clean Up Catalogs

Over time, unused or obsolete catalogs may accumulate.

✅ Recommendation

• Periodically review installed catalogs
• Remove catalogs that are no longer needed (after confirming with users)
• Always back up the database before removing catalogs

This helps:

• Reduce database size
• Improve performance
• Simplify catalog management

Summary

Proper maintenance of a shared Design catalog database is critical for performance, data accuracy, and operational continuity. By following these best practices, IT administrators can:

• Maintain control over catalog versions
• Safely recover from problematic catalog updates
• Plan for long-term database growth
• Minimize disruption to end users

A proactive maintenance strategy ensures the shared catalog database remains reliable, performant, and easy to manage as the organization and catalog library grow